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Archive for May, 2009

New Addition

It seems that we are need of congratulations.  We have a new farm baby that we did not know was coming.  Mama Cat is living up to her name in word and deed!  C & I found a fuzzy little surprise this morning when we went out on the deck.  It is alert, active and not afraid of much of anything. 

It would come up to us and try to climb our shoes, follow us around the deck and watch our every move.  Mama Cat didn’t seem to care what it did, but she stayed very close by.  Later on this afternoon, we caught them “cat-napping”.  For some reason, Mama C decided that my new flower pot with the freshly planted coleus plants seemed to be the perfect bedroom!  I was not pleased but the plant did not seem any the worse for wear.  Oh, well.  It looks like we now have a Baby-Cat to go with Mama-Cat.

 

DSC05823 DSC05829cats & flowercat in flower pot

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Working Vacation

While C & I are off from our regular jobs, we are trying to accomplish a few things here at the house.  Since today was one of the few, if not only, dry days this week, we did as much as we could.  The last thing we did was mow and trim.  But first…

I finally got to plant my raised bed!  Yay!!!!!  I am so excited.  Here are some views of the bed.  First, ready to plant:

ready

Here are the carrot seeds that I used.  They are both heirloom varieties.  I have never grown the French ones that are different colors.  Apparently, according to Good Eats’ Alton Brown, all carrots were not originally orange, but for some reason, the growers kept mixing them to get orange carrots. 

carrot seeds

I also planted 2 rows of Black Seeded Simpson lettuce.  I have already picked enough for 2 salads before it was in the ground!  This photo shows the lettuce and the bare spot next to it are the carrot rows.

carrot&lettuce

Next are the cucumbers and herbs.  I planted about 12 cucumber plants and am going to put tomato cages for them to run on vertically to save space.  Next to the cucumbers are 2 sweet pepper plants, one purple and one yellow.  I also have ferny dill, sweet basil, and flat leaf parsley.

cuke&herb 

That only leaves the potatoes.  I have 2 rows, which should be enough for the 2 of us.  Next year we may have to add more!

herb&potato

We dug a trench and planted the potatoes shallowly in that trench.  When they start to grow, we can put more dirt on them to “hill” them.

Lastly, here is a shot of the whole bed.  I just love to sit and stare at it.  It is so pretty!

overview-long

We also connected our second rain barrel. C devised a great way to direct the rainfall into the barrel until we get the downspout redirect thingy that we have ordered.

DSC05817

 

I am so excited with the progress that we made today.  There just doesn’t seem to be enough time, daylight, and especially, energy to do everything that I would like to do.  Oh, well, there is always another day!

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I will be so spoiled…

This week, C & I took vacation time from our “9-5” jobs, and let me tell you, I could get used to this!  It is so nice to not have to wake up to a blaring alarm clock!  I don’t have to sleep late, but I love to sleep until I wake up and not off to jump & run.  We are planning on getting a few things done around the house and also just rest and have a little fun.

 

Since it has been raining nearly everyday until yesterday, the dirt was way too wet to plant anything yet.  (Frown!)  Hopefully, I will get to plant a few things today.  I did manage to knock a few little things off my to-do list anyway.  I washed the front porch granny chairs so they would be bright red again.  I also washed and sanitized the garbage cans.  So much fun! 

 

DSC05794

 

C & I received a Craftsman tool chest for Christmas.  Thanks, C’s mom & dad!  We had not taken the time to place it where we wanted it in the garage or put any tools in it.  Yesterday was the day.  C got a matching work bench for his birthday.  Thanks again, C’s mom & dad!  We finally put the pieces next to each other and filled them with tools.  We actually still have some empty drawers so we must not have enough tools!!  Ha, ha.  Below are before and after shots of the area in the garage.

 DSC05797 DSC05800

 

I hope to have some planting shots pretty soon.  My cucumber plants may start blooming in the four-packs before I can get them planted!

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Cookout Success

As some of you know, my workplace has a team in the local Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society.  We were getting very close to our fundraising goal, so we decided to have a cookout to try to reach it.  Well, we did it!!  We sold meals consisting of either grilled Green River Cattle Company hamburgers or grilled Uncle Charlie’s tenderloin sandwiches, a bag of chips, a homemade dessert, and a canned drink for $5.00.  We ended up making over $400!!!  That was pure profit since we had some very generous donations. 

 

My father-in-law is one of the co-owners of the Green River Cattle Company, a locally owned and operated gourmet beef business.  He graciously donated 40 quarter-pound hamburgers for our cause.  Thanks!!!  We used bake sale money to purchase the tenderloin.  My co-worker K, who co-owns a local restaurant, donated the chips.  The Wal-mart store in the next town donated the drinks, buns, and cheese, and the team members made the desserts.

 

I had plans of getting some very good photos of all the action, but there was NO time!  I got a few shots of our set-up before the rush began, but that was all. 

 

DSC05792 DSC05789

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